A poor show with nobody at home

The national league's new season kicked off with a whimper rather than a bang, reports Michael Cockerill.

The experiment of bringing forward the start of the National Soccer League season by two weeks has backfired with poor crowds dogging the opening round at the weekend despite the absence of television coverage for the first time.

Fewer than 25,000 people attended the six first-round matches, with Newcastle United, Brisbane Strikers and the Auckland Kingz all - to varying degrees - caught in the crossfire of the business end of both the AFL and NRL seasons.

With Channel Seven having withdrawn from televising the league following the collapse of its pay TV arm C7 and Fox Sports yet to pick up the coverage, the low turnouts were especially disappointing. Several clubs have long complained that live coverage on pay television adversely affected their gates.

The NSL traditionally kicks off on the October long weekend but, in order to accommodate the expanded 10-week finals series, the clubs agreed to bring the season forward. Having also ruled out midweek fixtures, and with Soccer Australia determined to keep June free for international commitments, the clubs were left with little option but an early start.

NSL Commission chairman Remo Nogarotto conceded yesterday the gamble had not paid off but maintains the fixture list didn't help. Four of the biggest drawing clubs in the league - Perth Glory, Northern Spirit, Olympic Sharks and South Melbourne - don't play at home until next weekend.");document.write("

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"The clubs did consider the impact of the AFL and NRL finals but in the end they believed the negatives would be outweighed at the other end of the season," Nogarotto said. "For instance, there's no doubt my club [Newcastle United] have been swept up in Joeymania and that had a big impact on our gate on Friday night [7800]. But ultimately there are only so many weeks in a year, and the clubs were determined to avoid playing midweek.

"You've also got to consider the bigger picture. The game's standing in the public eye is not great at the moment so it's not exactly the perfect time to launch the season. But, having said that, I'm sure the crowds will improve."

Improving on the park is the priority for one club hoping to attract a new audience to the NSL. Parramatta Power opened their season with a disappointing 2-0 loss to Perth Glory on Saturday night and new coach Nick Theodorakopoulos admitted afterwards he had "no idea" how long it would take for his new-look team to gel.

The Power have signed nine new players this season and six of them were given a start against the Glory. After having the better of the first half but failing to grasp their opportunities, Parramatta were hit by two Perth goals inside eight minutes soon after the break.

"It was a tough first-up assignment for us," Theodorakopoulos said. "We were playing a side which only lost one game last season and which has had only minimal changes to its roster.

"We had a lot of new faces out there and it's going to take time. But I think there were some very good signs for us, particularly in the first half, so overall I'm not that disappointed. I thought we matched them for long periods of the game."

Victorious Perth coach Mich D'Avray concurred, saying: "I wouldn't read too much into this result. Parramatta are a team who will be right up there at the end of the season."

Elsewhere, Northern Spirit had an upset 2-1 win over Brisbane at Ballymore, Marconi Stallions and Wollongong Wolves had an exciting 2-2 draw and Newcastle United also started strongly with a 2-0 win over South Melbourne.